Like all years, we leave 5775 exhausted, many of us repeatedly disappointed by politicians and rabbis; by men and women wise or witless; by opponents public or private, those with whom we are intimate and those with whom we are vaguely acquainted.

Disappointment breeds justification; tragedy — a stabbing, a suicide, a slander — grants us permission, we think, to make sweeping indictments, accusations and conclusions, far beyond the perpetrator. Yom Kippur comes, restoring grace and mercy to an unforgiving landscape.

Now that President Obama has prevailed in his push for the Iranian nuclear deal, much second-guessing is taking place in our community on whether and how Israel, and major American Jewish organizations, should have voiced concerns about it. And some assumptions about winners and losers in this brutal battle deserve to be questioned.

The 11th century was a time of danger for the Jews of Europe, an era of blood libel, the earliest Crusade and other attacks on the continent’s vulnerable Jewish population. Out of that crucible emerged a piece of liturgy whose roots are often forgotten but whose spiritual influence endures at this time of year.

New York State requires yeshivas to provide a secular education to their students that is “substantially equivalent” to what public schools offer. The fact that the law has been neglected for decades is no surprise, but it is a disgrace.

The thought crosses our minds almost daily in reflecting on an American presidential primary season whose air of discontent conjures up the fictional news anchor in the 1976 Academy Award-winning film “Network.” It was Howard Beale, portrayed by the late Peter Finch, who captured the frustration of the nation in yelling repeatedly on air, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Calls are growing louder for Poland to adopt a process to resolve private property restitution claims of families — mostly non-Jewish — whose property was confiscated by the Nazis and/or later nationalized by the Communists. (See story on page 1.)

The seemingly growing gap between Israel and Jews in the diaspora threatened to widen even more last week when a major participant in an effort designed to improve the relationship withdrew from the project.